Orchid's tale
by Trefoil
Summary: The story of an evil doe and the effect she has on her homewarren.
1. Birth

All the rabbits in Cloverdown Warren flinched as a doe's scream came from the medical burrow and echoed through the tunnels. They all paused and exchanged worried glances. They knew that it was the Rah's doe, Celandine, that was screaming. She was halfway through having her first litter of kittens, an event that was celebrated when the medical doe had first pronounced her pregnant, but nobody was celebrating now. The birth was going seriously wrong. The medical doe had told the Rah, Spearmint, that Celandine would be very lucky to survive.   
  
Almost all the rabbits of the warren had asked Frith to help poor Celandine with her first litter. She was very popular and well loved, as was Spearmint-Rah. Everyone felt very sorry for them and now, since the screaming had started, they all thought that the Black Rabbit of Inle was already on his way to collect poor Celandine. They didn't hold out much hope for her. So they were all very surprised when their chief rabbit bounded out of the medical burrow with a huge grin on his face and called an emergency meeting of the whole warren. Everyone quickly gathered together in the main burrow. It was so crowded that a lot of the rabbits couldn't get in and had to queue up outside in the tunnels. They pricked their ears and craned their necks around tunnel walls, trying to hear what their Rah was saying and get a glimpse of him. Spearmint-Rah stood on a large rock and looked over his rabbits and a large smile spread slowly over his face. He cleared his throat to get total silence and announced to the warren that although Celandine was very weak and it had been touch and go for her for a while, she would live! What was more, she had given birth to three healthy kits! Two does and a buck and both Marli and kits were doing well!   
  
That night, as the kits nursed from their Marli for the first time, the rabbits of Cloverdown warren celebrated. Flayrah was distributed, bobstones played and the warren's best storytellers told all their best stories well into the night. Spearmint-Rah gave a cheerful speech to close the proceedings and announced the new kit's names. The buck would be called Goosegrass and the two does would be Orchid and Heather. Some of the rabbits were allowed into the medical burrow to see the new kits and congratulate their Marli. They all said "awww" as they saw the new kits huddling blindly against their Marli for warmth. Celandine smiled exhaustedly at them, but hoped that they would not be staying for long. She really just wanted to sleep, but she knew they all meant well and that she had a duty as the Rah's doe to let them see the new-borns.   
  
As hours slowly grew into days and days then grew into weeks, the kits grew too. Their eyes opened and their fur came through. The buck, Goosegrass and Heather had sandy coloured fur, their sister, Orchid, had pure white fur and very proud of it she was too. "I have nicer fur than you!" she'd tell rabbits that she passed on the way silf. They'd laugh and treat it in good humour and think it cute that one so young should be so proud.  
  
"Now kits, go and silflay, but don't stray too far from Marli, okay?" Celandine told them one afternoon, as they got silf. Goosegrass grinned and hopped away. He had been listening to a fantastic El-ahrairah tale the evening before and had been waiting all day to get silf and play at helping the rabbit hero himself. He pretended that he'd been asked to take Rabscuttle's place on a particularly dangerous adventure. Heather went off on her own like she always did. She was a quiet little doe and enjoyed her own company. One of her ears wouldn't stand up properly, it just hung down limply at the side of her face. She could hear out of it okay, but she just couldn't move it. She did worry about it sometimes because it wasn't the same as the other kits, but Marli said it was cute so that made her feel a little better. She hopped away from her two siblings. They were too loud for her. Goosegrass was always running around and shouting and Orchid was always screaming for something she wanted. She normally got it too, just so the adults could get some peace and quiet. Heather found a nice sunny spot to sit and some lush looking clover to silflay on. She smiled and started to silflay quietly, until someone walked up behind her and trod down on her bad ear.  
  
"Ow! Get off!" said Heather, unable to raise her head to even see who it was. She managed to turn her head to the side and saw a small white paw treading her ear into the ground. She knew then that it was Orchid.  
  
"You're silflaying my flay, Freakear." Orchid growled. She was slightly bigger than her sister and far more aggressive.   
  
"B..But I found this flay..." Heather began, but she stopped as Orchid slowly pressed her claws into her ear. "Stop it! You're hurting me!" she cried.  
  
"Then you'd better run away, hadn't you? You ugly little freak!" Orchid said, grinning.  
  
"I'll tell Marli!" warned Heather. Orchid growled again and pushed her little claws down harder, this time drawing tiny pools of blood around each claw tip.  
  
"Marli won't listen to you, Freakear. I'll just say you made it all up. Who's Marli gonna believe? Her beautiful, intelligent daughter or her stuttering, little Freakear?" Orchid asked, then she grinned wider and leaned in to Heather to whisper in her bad ear.  
  
"I heard Marli crying last night while you and Goosegrass were asleep. She was talking to Parli about you. You make her cry a lot because she's so ashamed of you." Orchid said, pausing to let her words sink in. "She said she wished you hadn't been born, Freakear." Orchid lied. She really enjoyed making other rabbits feel bad and at this early age, Heather was by far her easiest target.  
  
"T..That's not true!" Heather said, but tears were already beginning to well up in the corners of her eyes.  
  
"You know it's true. Now get lost, Freakear. I need this good flay because I have beautiful fur. An ugly kit like you only deserves to silflay bad flay." she said and lifted her paw off of Heather's poor ear. Heather turned and started to run as the tears started to trickle down her face. She didn't want Orchid to see her cry. Orchid giggled to herself as she watched her go and started to eat the clover. 


	2. Silf and stories

The rest of the kits silflay that day was fairly uneventful. Orchid ate her clover, Heather felt very depressed and nervous and didn't silflay much as a result and Goosegrass finished his game of playing El-ahrairah's new companion. When he felt too tired to play anymore, he happily filled his belly with flay. All the time the kits were silf, Celandine watched them from a distance. She had to warn Goosegrass not to run too far from the warren once, but apart from that she thought they were all behaving very well.  
  
Celandine smiled as Frith came out from behind a cloud and shone down upon her. She closed her eyes and smiled. She felt very contented with her life. A rabbit couldn't ask for more than she now had. An excellent warren to live in and her own little family. Cloverdown was such a pretty warren too, she had always thought that though. Even when she had arrived all those seasons ago as a young hlessi with nowhere to go, she had thought the warren was beautiful. It was quite old, but it wasn't one of those huge, sprawling mass of tunnels that old warrens sometimes became. It was compact and nicely set out, with a good sized meeting burrow and plenty of well appointed sleeping burrows. The warren itself was nestled comfortably between a hill and a small stream in a place that didn't have too many elil and man rarely visited, so the rabbits didn't have to be over cautious about going silf.  
  
A strong gust of wind suddenly ruffled Celandine's fur. It was still early in the season and although Frith was blessing the world with his shining light, his warmth wasn't yet stronger than the cold north wind, that was still managing to cling onto it's icy edge from the bad winter they had endured. Celandine got to her feet and took a few steps over to where her offspring were silflaying.  
  
"Come on, kits! Time to go back in now!" she called to them. She looked up at the clouds as Frith disappeared behind them again and she wondered if they'd be getting some rain later on. There was a slight scent of it in the air. She was glad that she had decided to take the kits silf early now.  
  
"Come on now! You too Goosegrass!" Celandine called to them, noticing her son was now trying to catch a moth. He gave up with it as he heard his Marli's second call and ran over to her, beating his two sisters in reaching her first and smiling triumphantly at both of them, even though neither of them had been aware that they were in a race in the first place.  
  
"Heather! Whatever's happened to your ear? You've got a cut on it!" Celandine said, moving closer to examine her daughter's bad ear.  
  
"Oh, she trod on it earlier, didn't you Heather?" Orchid said quickly, before Heather could reply. Orchid shot her sister a cold, threatening stare as her marli's back was turned. "She's always tripping over it, Marli! I feel so sorry for her!"   
  
Heather said nothing. She was afraid of what Orchid would do to her if she told her marli the truth. Celandine licked the ear carefully until she was happy that it was clean.  
  
"It'll be alright, Heather, but be careful where you put your paws when you walk in future, okay?" Celandine said. Heather looked at the ground and nodded her head sadly.  
  
"Yeah, Heather! Be careful where you put your paws!" smirked Orchid. "Perhaps I can hold your poor, bad ear in my mouth on the way back into the warren, Heather dear, that way you'll not tread all over it again."   
  
"No! I don't need any help from you!" Heather snapped back.  
  
"Now, now, Heather, don't get cross with your sister, she only wants to help." Celandine said gently, then she turned to Orchid. "I think Heather will be fine walking back on her own, Orchid."  
  
"Yes, Marli!" Orchid said, with one of her sweetest expressions.  
  
"Alright, it's going to rain out here soon, you can smell it in the air, so lets all get back to the burrow before it starts and I'll tell you a nice story." Celandine smiled.   
  
"An El-ahrairah story?" beamed Goosegrass hopefully.  
  
"Yes, I think we can manage that." she replied, smiling back at her son. Celandine then turned back to the warren and led her three kits inside. Goosegrass walked beside his marli, discussing with her what story he'd like to hear. Orchid walked just behind them, glancing back over her shoulder now and then to smirk at Heather as they walked through the warren. Heather slowed right down and fell back, away from the others. She didn't want to be anywhere near her sister anymore. Orchid had always been a bully, but she had got a lot worse lately. She seemed to delight in making her sister cry. Now she was calling her by that terrible nickname, 'Freakear'. Heather didn't know how much more she could take. She wanted to tell her Marli, but she had a terrible nagging feeling inside her that what Orchid said was true. Her Marli would probably believe her sister rather than her. Then Orchid would get really angry and hurt her. Heather wished she didn't have to go back to the burrow with her family. She wished she had a little burrow all by herself somewhere. A place she could go to get away from her sister and be on her own, but it was not to be and Heather slowly and reluctantly followed the others back to the burrow.   
  
"Come in and sit down, Heather. I'm about to start the story." said Celandine as her daughter appeared in the burrow entrance. Heather whispered an "Okay, Marli.", entered and sat at the back of the large burrow, well away from Orchid who was at laying on the ground directly in front of Celandine. Goosegrass just couldn't seem to keep still for more than two minutes and he was now tugging at the end of a dead gorse bush root that had probably been poking into the burrow since it was dug out. Orchid frowned at him, finding him very irritating.  
  
Celandine then began her El-ahrairah tale. It was the story of El-ahrairah and the snow rabbit. All the kits had heard it before, but as their Marli told it so well, none of them complained, not even Orchid who complained a lot. Celandine told the story well because it was her favourite and her love of it came through in her telling. It was the first story she had heard at Cloverdown. It had been told to her by an old storyteller the night she had arrived as a hlessi. She had been very nervous and frightened that night and the story had brought a smile to her face and banished all her fears. She had been surprised when the old buck had started the tale, as she thought she had heard every tale of El-ahrairah that existed and she had interrupted the story and told the buck so. The elderly storyteller had chuckled and he said that no rabbit, not even the best of taletellers, knew every adventure of El-ahrairah and some of the stories were only told in one or two warrens. A rabbit would have to travel the world and visit every warren in it and befriend and chat to every hlessi storyteller to hear every single one. Celandine had smiled and let the buck return to the tale and she told that same tale now to her little ones and she told it well. Even poor little Heather managed to forget her troubles for a while. 


	3. Interrupted sleep

After the story was finished, Celandine told the kits to have a nap while she left them for a while. It was part of their normal routine to get some sleep at this time of day while Celandine visited her mate, who'd be busy training Owsla. Spearmint-Rah wasn't one of those chief rabbits who slouched around in his burrow all day long, demanding flayrah, far from it in fact. He spent his days training his Owsla and did as much work doing it as his Captain of Owsla. Celandine felt very proud to be the mate of a Rah who worked so hard for his warren.   
  
"Now be good and rest while Marli is away and if you can't sleep, remember, you mustn't leave the burrow. That includes you, Goosegrass." Celandine said to her son, who had broken that particular rule the week before to watch a thunderstorm from the warren's entrance. He had got a long telling off from both his Marli and Parli after that and since that day, Celandine had singled him out for a special warning every time she left them alone in the burrow.  
  
"I told you I won't leave the burrow on my own anymore, Marli." said Goosegrass, sounding slightly annoyed.  
  
"I'm glad to hear it." said Celandine, she wasn't pleased with his tone of voice, but she left the matter for now. She then gave them all a smile, told them to sleep well and left the burrow.  
  
Orchid lay on her back, sighed happily and lazily groomed one of her ears. Heather stayed at the back of the burrow and watched her sister carefully. One of Orchid's favourite tricks was to pretend to fall asleep and wait until Heather was genuinely slumbering. She'd then sneak up silently on Heather, kick her in the ribs and yell "Are you asleep yet?" right into her ear. As a result of this happening, Heather would stay awake a long time after her siblings had both fallen asleep, just so she could be positive that Orchid really was sleeping. She had thought about telling her Marli about this, after all, she had Goosegrass as a witness to this piece of bullying. He had been woken up when Orchid shouted too and he had seen that Heather was in pain and that Orchid was walking away laughing. But Heather had spoken to him lots of times in the past, asking him to speak to Marli with her and each time he had replied the same way. "I don't want to get involved, Heather." he'd say. "Just ignore her. Don't let her upset you, she'll get tired of doing it and give up after a while." Heather had followed his advice, but Orchid never did seem to get tired of tormenting her.   
  
As she lay watching Orchid, she noticed that the ear she was grooming was the left one, the same ear as Heather's bad one. She wondered if Orchid was grooming it to get at her somehow, but Heather quickly dismissed that idea. Orchid was never that subtle. Heather noticed that Goosegrass was already asleep. He was laying on his back with the end of the gorse root in the side of his mouth, sucking at it as if he was nursing from his Marli.  
  
'Why doesn't she ever pick on him? Why does it always have to be me?' Heather thought to herself, but she knew what the real reason was. Goosegrass took after his Parli physically, if not mentally. He was larger than both his sisters and Heather knew that that gave Orchid second thoughts. The influence of the story had now worn off of Heather completely, leaving her feeling as miserable as before. She silently scratched little marks in the dirt of the burrow floor, waiting to feel safe enough to sleep.  
  
Orchid was having no trouble getting off to sleep. She finished absently grooming her ear and giggled almost silently to herself. It had been so much fun taking Freakear's flay earlier. She didn't even think of her as Heather anymore, she used to, but now she was Freakear in Orchid's mind, a rabbit that existed purely for Orchid's own amusement and in Orchid's eyes that was the way things should be. After all, she was the prettiest and smartest by far. She was the rabbit that one day Parli would hand the warren over to and everyone would shout and cheer for their new Orchid-Rah. What use to the warren was her ugly, stupid sister ever going to be? Perhaps she'd be good for digging burrows out for some of the less important rabbits in the warren, but that was all. Orchid's smile grew wider as she thought of this. She made a mental note to talk to Heather about their future the next time Marli left them alone. Orchid was always very careful to be as nice as she could to Heather when Marli could see or hear them. She remembered when Marli had taught them all to play bobstones. Orchid had paired up with Heather for their first game and by whispering horrible, unsettling things to her, she had done all she could to break her sister's concentration, so Heather ended up making stupid mistakes in the game. Orchid was very good at making her sister nervous and she really enjoyed doing it. Orchid then called her Marli over, just when Heather was at her worst, so she could witness it too. "Don't worry, dear, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it soon." Celandine had smiled reassuringly, trying to comfort Heather. Then Orchid had said brightly "Don't worry, Marli, I'll teach her how to play it! Even if I have to sit here with her all day long, I'll keep telling her until she learns it!" and her Marli would tell her what a kind kit she was to help her sister like that and as soon as her Marli's back was turned, Orchid had turned to Heather and grinned nastily. She could see that Heather was close to crying and she must have felt like the most useless and stupid idiot ever born.  
  
Orchid sighed contentedly again, smiled and drifted off to sleep.  
  
"Wake up!" Celandine shouted sharply. Orchid wasn't sure how long she'd been asleep, but she knew it couldn't have been long. She sleepily opened her eyes and looked around the burrow. Her Marli was standing over her, looking very worried, Goosegrass and Heather were awake and looked very worried too. She could hear the rhythmic drumming of heavy rain hitting the ground overhead and the sound of rabbits shouting and yelling elsewhere in the warren. Every few seconds one would run past the burrow entrance. There was a tense feeling of fear everywhere.  
  
"What's happening? What's wrong?" Orchid asked, scrambling quickly to her feet. Celandine didn't answer her, instead she moved to the burrow entrance, her ears pricked up, she was listening for something.  
  
"There's a man outside the warren and he has an elil creature with him!" Goosegrass suddenly said, his voice sounded high and scared. He was sitting next to Heather and looked far more frightened than she did, in fact she looked like she was trying to comfort him.  
  
"Be quiet! Marli's trying to listen!" Celandine turned and snapped at them. Orchid knew then that their lives were in real danger. Marli just didn't sound like Marli anymore. 


	4. Dark thoughts

Celandine pricked her ears up and held her breath as she listened for anything that sounded like danger. Of course, their were danger sounds all around. Frantic shouting, kits crying, orders being barked out, but Celandine wasn't interested in those noises, she was listening for an alien noise. A noise that would specifically mean that something very bad was on it's way. Suddenly a hush descended across the warren. There was the sound of a man's voice just outside the main entrance. All the rabbits stood silently still as they listened to it and although they didn't understand the meaning of the words he spoke, they knew that it meant zorn for them. Man only brought zorn. Although the rabbits were further back in the warren and could not see the entrance, they realised that the man must have been crouched or knelt directly in front of the opening, otherwise his voice would not have been so loud.   
  
"Good girl, Rosie. There's my good girl. You go in there and get a nice fat one for me." the man said as he fussed over the elil he had just taken out of a battered wicker basket. The elil responded by bending her long supple body towards the warren entrance and enthusiastically sniffing the air. She could smell the strong rabbit scent in the air. She wriggled to free herself from the man's grasp and get inside the warren. He chuckled and set her down on the short grass in front of the rabbit hole. As soon as he released his grip on her, she was inside. She padded quickly along into the darkness, sniffing at the strong rabbit smell all around her. She liked the smell, she knew it meant she would soon taste blood and get to kill her prey. She stalked along the deserted tunnels at random, peering this way and that into the gloom. She had done this many times before at other warrens and knew that the rabbits instinctively went down into the deeper and lower tunnels to hide. She would find them soon enough.  
  
"Marli, what's that embleer scent?" Heather asked Celandine, a touch of panic showing in her voice. They could all smell the elil scent now and they knew the predatory creature was inside the warren. Celandine knew that if she was going to act to save her kits, whatever she did had to be done now. She considered taking them with her, deep down into the warren, where she knew most of the other rabbits would be gathered. They'd all be waiting and listening down in the deepest, darkest burrows. All huddled silently together in terror. The elil would surely find them down there and zorn would suddenly erupt. Rabbits would be scrabbling and scratching over and across each other's bodies to escape the elil's jaws. The air would sound with screams of terror, until it was pieced with a singular scream of agony. One rabbit would surely die today and Celandine was determined that it wasn't going to be one of her young. She turned to them and looked into their frightened faces for a moment before speaking.  
  
"Marli has to leave you on your own for a little while. I'm going to seal the burrow entrance and I want you three to stay still and be as quiet as mice. Don't talk or cry and whatever you do, don't try to get out of the burrow. Marli will be back to get you out as soon as the danger is gone." She mumbled something nervously to herself as she headed out of the burrow. She stopped in the tunnel just outside and started to quickly dig soil up from the floor into the burrow entrance. Celandine was a fast digger and the soil was not heavy and came up easily. Within a matter of a couple of minutes the burrow entrance was completely filled in and unless you studied it closely and noticed that the earth was looser in that area, it looked just like any other part of the tunnel wall. Celandine took one last look at her work, hoping it would keep her kits safe and then turned and left, heading deep into the warren, to wait with the others.  
  
Inside the sealed burrow Heather stared blankly at the filled entrance where they had last seen their Marli. It seemed to her as if time had been frozen. No movement or noise. Just total darkness and total silence. All three kits coped with their fears in different ways, but they had never known fear like this before. They were on their own this time and if things went wrong, Marli couldn't save them. As they lay in the darkness, they realised that they had never experienced true silence before. It had an almost living presence and hung in the empty air around them as thick as well trodden mud.   
  
Orchid scowled as she stared into the endless blackness surrounding them. She didn't only feel fear for the elil, she felt hatred too. She hoped the Owsla would try to fight the embleer thing and it would die a long, lingering death. Why had Marli trapped her in here with her two stupid siblings? Surely she was more important than either of them! She then truly realised for the first time in her life that she really didn't care if her brother or sister were hurt or even killed. It had never fully occurred to her before. Freakear was less than worthless in Orchid's eyes and Goosegrass was only a joke. Look how he trembled and shook when things got tough! Orchid made a mental note to remember her brother's obvious fear. Perhaps she had misjudged him. Perhaps he'd be as easy to bully and push around as Freakear was. What would it matter to her if either of them were killed? It would just mean she'd get more flayrah and even more attention from her Marli and Parli. She already knew that Marli and Parli loved her more than the other two and it was only right that they did. After all, she was smarter and prettier than both of them put together. The more Orchid thought about it, the more benefits she could see in her siblings being dead. She was sure that if she pretended to be sad and cry, everyone would fuss over her and give her little treats to cheer her up. She'd be everyone's favourite kit! She smiled as she suddenly got an image in her mind of Freakear and Goosegrass limply hanging from a huge homba's jaws. There necks were clearly broken as their heads were swung down at an unnatural angle, nodding morbidly as the homba trotted along. Their dead eyes stared glassily into space and their dry tongues stuck out from their mouths. Orchid couldn't help but let out a slight giggle at the thought, breaking the tense silence and getting a whispered "Quiet!" from Heather.   
  
Orchid's top lip curled up in sudden anger. How dare Freakear tell her to be quiet! She was just about to whisper a threat back to her sister through her gritted teeth, when she heard the soft padding of something shuffling towards the burrow outside. They could tell by the sounds it made that it did not move like a rabbit. The noise got steadily louder and was soon accompanied by a loud sniffing sound. This carried on, getting louder and louder, until the shuffling sound abruptly stopped. The sniffing, however, continued on. The elil was taking deep, snuffling breaths through it's nose. It was so loud now that it sounded as if it was coming directly from the other side of the makeshift soil wall. The three kits froze in horror as they listened to the sniffing sounds. Whatever everyone was so terrified of was standing directly outside, only separated from them by a thin, fragile curtain of earth and what was worse, it knew that they were inside. 


	5. Sycamore

Sycamore was a burly and tough looking buck. He had been a part of the Owsla since he was barely out of kithood and he was well respected by all the rabbits of Cloverdown Warren. Despite his brawny and bullish appearance, he was known to be a firm but fair rabbit and many of the new Owsla recruits he taught to fight knew that they could approach him if they had a problem, a grievance or just needed someone to talk to. Many looked up to him as a hero, as he featured in many of the stories about the warren's past battles and adventures. Sycamore was getting older now though and he had lived past the normal age that Owsla rabbits stopped their guarding and training and rejoined the rest of the warren's civilian populace. Spearmint-Rah just didn't have the heart to retire him though. He was important to the morale of the warren. He was a living hero. But time doesn't make special exceptions for heroes and Sycamore was starting to show his age. His fur had lost some of it's shine and colour, his muscular physique was not as impressive as it once was, but worst of all he was starting to develop problems with his eyesight. Both of his once dark brown eyes were turning milky blue with cataracts. Although nobody wanted to say it, everybody knew that no rabbit, however popular, could remain in the Owsla forever.  
  
Despite his age, it was Sycamore that Celandine chose to go to when she had her premonition. She had been silently waiting and worrying like everyone else in the warren. Waiting with the other marlis, who also had their kits hidden away in their burrows. Her mate and Rah, Spearmint was busy discussing the current crisis with his advisers and senior Owsla rabbits, at the very back of the burrow. Celandine was just about to add her concerns to those the other marlis were voicing, when she suddenly felt such a strong feeling of fear and anxiety that she cried out, piecing the quietly mumbled tones being spoken and causing everyone to turn and stare at her as if she was the elil herself. Her mouth felt as dry as burnt wood, her spine involuntarily shivered and she felt as if there was a ball of worms wriggling in the depths of her stomach. 'If you don't do something right now, at this very moment, you'll never see your babies alive again.' a fuzzy, but strong voice in her head said to her. She pushed her way through the mass of nervous rabbits to Sycamore who, along with other Owsla, was standing around the warren's frightened occupants in a loose circle. More to give them reassurance than protection from the elil. He had volunteered for this duty and allowed a younger officer to take his place with Spearmint-Rah's advisers.  
  
"Please, I have to go to my kits! Something's going to happen to them! They're going to die if I don't do something!" she pleaded, her eyes wide with fear and her voice shaking. Sycamore had dealt with panicked individuals hrair times in the past. Many lost their nerve and went tharn in terrible times like this. Normally he would have told the tharn rabbit sternly to go back with the others, or pushed them back himself if it was necessary, but he had known Celandine personally since she was a kitten and he knew she was not a rabbit to easily lose her courage or her wits. There was something else too, an instinctive feeling he couldn't explain, but it urged him that Celandine was telling the truth.  
  
"Please, Sycamore! I don't know how I know, but I know they're going to die if I don't go to them!" Celandine pleaded. Sycamore furrowed his brow for a moment, then he simply shook his head.  
  
"Sycamore, please, I.." Celandine began but she was interrupted by the Owsla buck before she could complete her sentence.  
  
"Shhh! Get a grip on yourself or the whole warren will think you've gone tharn. I can't let you go, but I suppose I can go and check the burrow for you. I'm certainly not about to allow the Rah's mate to go wandering around the warren with elil on the loose. Are you sure they are in danger?" he asked, his old, imperfect eyes staring into her face.  
  
"I've never been more sure of anything else in my life! I'd not have you go if I had any doubts, Sycamore! I just know that they'll die!" she said, the hot squirming feeling inside her now growing so strong that it was causing her eyes to water.  
  
"Alright, I'll go, but you must stay here." he said and turned to leave out of the tunnel that the rest of the rabbits were huddled away from. The tunnel that they knew would deliver the elil to them.  
  
"Please hurry!" said Celandine, her feeling of fear worsening with every moment. Sycamore nodded, then he disappeared into the tunnel and out of sight.  
  
Sycamore padded silently, but swiftly, along the deserted tunnels of Cloverdown warren, pausing only briefly now and again to check for danger when his tunnel crossed with another. He knew where Celandine's burrow was. As the Rah's mate it was one of the better burrows in the deeper half of the warren. Sycamore planned to quickly check it, then get back to the others before he was even missed. He had done far more dangerous things in the past many times. As he travelled through the empty tunnels and runs that would normally be busy with rabbits, he could smell the embleer scent of elil gradually getting stronger. His ears flicked anxiously around as he moved towards the burrow, straining for any sound that might tell him where the elil was, but all was deathly silent, apart from his own padding pawsteps and the sound of his own heart beating steadily in his chest.  
  
As he neared Celandine's burrow he suddenly heard a soft snuffling sound. It was very faint, but it was there, somewhere very near. Sycamore walked on, even more cautiously now. The sniffing sound got slightly louder with every step he took. He was very near to Celandine's burrow now and he knew what he was going to see before he even got near enough to peer around the corner. All his fears were confirmed as he inched forward to see a large ferret begin to dig at the entrance to a burrow that he knew contained three young kittens. 


End file.
